Animals In PrintThe On-Line NewsletterFebruary 26,
2013

Dolphins and Whales should be recognized as non-human persons with their own bill of rights scientist decide

The 10 Rights for Dolphins as ‘Non-Human Persons’
(Petition)

Last week (February 2013), in Vancouver, Canada at
the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS), the group, which was led by Dr. Thomas White, was canvassing
for support of their “Declaration of Cetacean Rights.” The coalition of
scientists, animal-rights activists, and philosophers came to a total
agreement, that is that dolphins, second only to humans in terms of
mammalian intelligence, should be considered “non-human persons” and granted
due protection under law.

According to Dr. White, an ethics expert
at Loyola Marymount University, “The similarities between cetaceans and
humans are such that they, as we, have an individual sense of self. Dolphins
are non human persons. A person needs to be an individual. If individuals
count, then the deliberate killing of individuals of this sort is ethically
the equivalent of deliberately killing a human being. The science has shown
that individuality, consciousness, self-awareness is no longer a unique
human property. That poses all kinds of challenges.”

It has been
proven through dolphin research that they are more intelligent than
chimpanzees. Dolphins can recognize their reflections in a mirror and can
even think about the future. Two years ago, these same scientists had
originally proposed the ten Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans at a
conference in Helsinki, Finland. The dolphins have distinctive cultures,
societies and personalities that are so complex that they should be
considered in the same light as people according to the scientists.

These marine experts now hope to persuade international authorities to
enshrine in law the rights of cetaceans, a group of water-dwelling mammals
including porpoises. They state that isolating dolphins and orcas in tanks
at amusement parks is morally wrong because the animals are even more
socially driven than humans. Killing them should be considered tantamount to
murder as in the deliberate killing of a human being.

Recognizing the
status of cetaceans in law is important because it would make commercial
whaling and imprecise fishing methods which kill hundreds of thousands of
dolphins and whales each year morally abhorrent according to Dr. White.

Recent scientific studies on dolphins' brains have
also shown that they communicate with each other in a similar way to humans
and that they can reason. "We went from seeing the dolphin or whale brain as
being giant amorphous blob that doesn’t carry a lot of intelligence and
complexity to being an enormous brain with a complexity that rivals our own.
It's different in the way its put together, but in terms of the level of
complexity it is very similar to the human brain," said Dr Lori Marino, of
Emory University in Atlanta, one of the architects of the declaration.

An experiment at the Institute for Marine Mammal
Studies in Mississippi in which dolphins were rewarded for clearing rubbish
from their enclosures highlighted their remarkable intellectual
capabilities. One dolphin named Kelly began hiding large paper bags at the
bottom of her tank, ripping them apart and bringing them to her handler one
at a time to trick him into giving her multiple rewards.The group of researchers are now canvassing support from other
scientists in the hope of bringing it to the attention of policymakers. The
ten-point document says each individual cetacean has the right to life, to a
free existence in their natural habitat and to the protection of their
environment. It adds that no person or organisation has the right to own a
cetacean, or to disrupt their culture. Cetaceans are entitled to have these
rights set down in an internationally recognised legal document, it
concludes.

Please take a minute to sign the petition (copy/paste
URL into your browser):Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Whales and
Dolphinshttp://www.cetaceanrights.org/

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